Kid Rock: “I was the kid with the vial full of rocks…”

Way back in spring 1999, once Kid Rock had already gone multi-platinum Stateside, the ‘All Summer Long’ star made his first trip to London. Ben Myers was there to conduct Kid Rock’s first ever UK interview.

What can you tell me about your early years as a crack dealer?
I was very fucking small time. I was the kid with the vial full of rocks, just hanging out. I used to get kicked out of the house for stupid things. Like my brother would be in drug rehab and I wouldn’t want to go and I’d tell everyone to suck my dick.

I was about fifteen so I’d take my turntables down to the ‘hood where I was known as a DJ. I’d stay for three months, work in a car wash, DJ parties and sell crack. We were just hustling, we could make $100 a day. When you’ve seen the shit go down though, it’s not that funny. When you have a gun pointed at you it’s not funny. When you see a friend get shot, it’s fucked up.

You saw your friend get shot?
My good friend Dada got killed by a drive-by, he caught one in the chest when shot through his window. Also I was living with my two best friends and their Mom was professionally hit in some sort of mob shit, they found her in a trailor with her head and her right arm cut off. Shit like that is fucked up.

Being the only white kid on the rap scene were you treated differently?
I was a really good DJ, I could do all those tricks with my elbows and chin. I was the white kid who could rock the turntables and aint nobody fucked with me. Everyone was really cool. I still hang out down there.

Watch the video to #1 single, ‘All Summer Long’ by Kid Rock

Is Kid Rock on tour as debauched as your public image suggests?
Yeah, but we’re not assholes about it. We don’t get girls naked on the bus and then kick them out. We’re not mean, but yeah all that shit happens…girls shoving bowling pins up them… all that shit.

I suspect stuff that like possibly sound better in print than in reality.
Yeah. You’ve got to careful with ages, so we always check girls’ IDs. I have my sick moral standards. I don’t fuck married women and I don’t fuck guys’ girlfriends. If a girl has a boyfriend I’ll tell her to go get him so he can hang out too. Other than that it’s open season.

I remember one time this hot chick came on the bus and said ‘I want to suck your dick’ and I’m like, ‘Alright!’ I mean, what am I going to say? No? So she ended up coming with me to the next city and it turns out that she’s married. And her husband had sent the police after her. Ain’t my problem though. I mean… whatever.

Kid Rock with ex-wife and former Baywatch star, Pamela Anderson

Isn’t it all bit clichéd?
We don’t hurt people, we just want to get fucked up and have a good time. We don’t like to throw TVs out of windows – we like to fill up the hot-tub and put a bunch of hot girls in there. I’ve got nothing to hide. If you lie and get caught you look dumb. If you catch an actor with a hooker, it’s front page news, but if I’m caught smoking crack with a hooker, I’m some sort of hero. It’s like, ‘Yeah! Alright, Kid Rock!’

Have you made any enemies as a result of your success?
Kids where I live come around. They say ‘Let’s go fuck with Kid Rock’s house’, which I would have done at that age too. So now I’ve got a security guard. They paint my car, they shoot paintballs at my car… no death threats or anything though. What are you gonna do anyway? Motherfuckers killed the president, if they want to get me it’s not going to be that hard…

Comments

“And her husband had sent the police after her. Ain’t my problem though. I mean… whatever” – made me laugh. Didn’t he once rap/sing “No remorse for the Sherrif, in his eyes I ain’t right, I’m gonna paint the town red, then paint his wife white”? Yes, yes he did.

“And her husband had sent the police after her. Ain’t my problem though. I mean… whatever” – made me laugh. Didn’t he once rap/sing “No remorse for the Sherrif, in his eyes I ain’t right, I’m gonna paint the town red, then paint his wife white”? Yes, yes he did.

TennesseeGirl

It was a pretty cool video, filmed at Old Hickory Lake in Nashville, TN and palmed-off as ‘northern Michigan’. The song was a lot less original than some of his other songs, sort of a “Sweet Home Alabama” meets a “Werewolves of London” riff. I know it went skyrocketing, but I thought the whole thing was just okay.